


I'll Sea You There

by Neelh



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Autistic Pines Family, Gen, Selkie AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-02 18:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6578407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neelh/pseuds/Neelh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During this summer at Gravity Cove, Dipper and Mabel know that they will be changed forever. Their fates, and that of the world, will be sealed. Do you get it? Because they're seals. Literal seal people.</p><p>(or, the selkie au scene series)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sending Stimming Selkies

**Author's Note:**

> Selkie AU belongs to Scribefindegil and Aroford on tumblr. I am just a small autistic child excited about it, so none of this is AU canon.

The bus ride to Gravity Cove is long, and Dipper and Mabel are almost all alone.

There’s the bus driver, of course, taking them on the long journey across states from the Oakland bus station, but otherwise, it’s just her brother and herself.

Mabel watches Dipper from the corner of her eye. He is chewing his knuckle, his head resting on the window. It can’t be comfortable, Mabel thinks, because the bus is going over bumps and potholes in the road and it’s shaking and shaking, but Dipper says that sometimes it feels nice. She’s tried it a few times, but she can’t say that she agrees.

Anyway, the bumpy journey means that her knitting is kind of wonky, so the anchor she is trying to fashion into her new sweater looks more like a deformed cyclops-octopus. Cycloptopus! Anyway, it means she’ll be stuck with the light blue one with the boat design on the front for the rest of the trip, and she wore that one yesterday! Oh well, it’s not like anyone except Dipper will know.Speaking of her brother, he’s gonna like this mess of a design.

She nudges Dipper, who seems to come out of a trance. “Nyuh?”

“Hey, Dipper. Bro. Look,” she grins, holding up her mess of a sweater. “Cycloptopus.”

His face brightens up. “Maybe we’ll find one in the sea when we get to Gravity Cove!” he says, flapping his hands. “I mean, even if they aren’t near the shore, we can swim out, and it’s gonna be a lot easier to go underwater now!”

In unison, they both glance towards the brown rucksack on Dipper’s lap. Unlike the rest of their luggage, this one only contains one thing, despite the multitude of pockets that could be used to store anything extra. Mabel grins, before looking back at Dipper, who is smiling just as much as she is.

“Selkie!” they both beam, flapping their hands at each other.

When their parents had told them both before the summer that Dipper was born as a seal, Mabel had squealed in joy, because Dipper was basically a mermaid. When their parents had told them both that the seal skin could possibly be shared between the two of them, Mabel had squealed, jumped up and down, and flapped her sweater sleeves over her hands for a good ten minutes. Dipper had had to leave the room because she was being so loud.

So they had packed their bags in order to head towards the sea, to their great-uncle who their parents claimed was also a selkie and would teach them both how to wear their skin. But right now, the skin was in the brown rucksack, waiting to once again be worn by its owners so they could return to the sea.

But seriously.

 _Selkies_.


	2. Welcoming Waves

“Okay, so do you actually know how to put your sealskin on?” Grunkle Stan asks, standing opposite the twins on the sandy beach. The familiar smell of the salt sea fills his nostrils, the sun is mild, and Stan is suddenly struck by the memory of the first time he stood on this shoreline and, despite his grief and the unfamiliarity of the location, it felt like coming home. He glances at the kids next to him, and wonders if they feel the same kinship with the ocean, or if their selkie blood has been diluted by humans and their shared skin was just a fluke.

Mabel wriggles her toes in the sand, having burrowed her way through the rocks until it looks like she sprouted fully-formed from the coast, and if she were anyone else, Stan would think that she wasn’t paying attention and was instead staring at the crappy fishing boat that he had dubbed the Stan O’ War. But Dipper nods, and Mabel hums happily. “We took turns practising in the bath,” she says.

“It’s pretty instinctual!” adds Dipper. “I mean, it’s just a part of me. Apparently I was born wearing it.”

“Okay, good,” Stan replies absently. “So now you get to learn how to swim! One of you get the skin on,” he says, turning around and closing his eyes.

When Mabel calls, “Ready!” Stan turns back around to see her holding Dipper’s clothes and standing next to a small beater with the Big Dipper marked on his forehead.

Stan nods. “You’ve got pretty distinctive markings,” he says. “Should be easier to find you if you get lost.”

The seal’s eyes widen and he leans back. Mabel pulls a disposable camera on a lanyard out of her sweater and takes a picture one-handedly. Dipper shoots her a look of annoyance that would not look out of place on his human form, so Stan can’t really blame her for taking another picture.

“I think he’s worried about getting lost,” Mabel says. “We don’t really know your sealskin that well? It kind of looks like every other seal to us.”

Stan pauses for a moment, his brow furrowing, then unlinks the golden clasp of the chain he wears. The loss of the familiar weight on his sternum makes him wince like when he tries to eat lemons. “I’ll wear this until you can both find me easily without it, okay?” he says, looking mostly at Dipper even as he hands the chain to Mabel.

The seal nods, and Mabel smiles gratefully. “I guess I’m on the boat?” she asks, a moment later.

“Yeah,” Stan says. “There’s a couple of oars in it, some rope, some snacks. I don’t know if you can swim well, so I got some armbands that a tourist kid left last week.”

Mabel’s smile becomes a grin. “Then what are we waiting for?”

She runs to the boat, stumbling in the sand and clutching her brother’s clothing carefully to her chest. The disposable camera dangles from her wrist, flapping behind her in the gentle wind. She hops into the boat and bobs excitedly up and down, pushing herself into the shallow water with a wooden oar.

“Slow down, Mabel!” Stan shouts. “I’m not a seal yet!”

Mabel pouts, but digs the oar into the sand and pushes herself back onto the wet sand.

Stan turns to look at Dipper, who in turn is staring at the waves lapping along the beach. His gaze moves upwards, drinking in the sight of the livid-blue sea. Stan smiles, before shaking his head and quickly slipping into his sealskin as soon as the kids had turned their backs. He leaves his clothes under a rock and pulls on the skin that fits him so well after thirty years.

He barks once he reacquaints himself with his body by flapping his flippers for a few seconds and emerges from behind the rock. Mabel snorts, even though she has clearly just been playing chase with Dipper who moves in pretty much exactly the same way.

“You’re like a giant sausage with little limbs!” she beams, fastening the gold chain around his neck like a pet’s collar.

Stan flaps indignantly. At least, he hopes he comes off as indignant. Probably not, because Mabel just presses her hands against her cheeks and coos at him until he nudges her towards the boat and she pushes herself out into sea.

He turns to Dipper, who barely tries to hide the affection in his eyes until he faces Stan. There is a moment of wordless communication between the two, and Dipper rushes towards the waves.

For a moment, Stanley Pines watches his great-nephew and niece as they finally discover the ocean. The salty air; the welcomed itch of sand; the fish that flee, lest they become food; and the knowledge that after all of these years, you have come home to where you were always meant to be and where you will always be welcomed home by the embrace of the sea.

  
Stan shakes his head and joins the twins in their play.


End file.
